Phantom Navigation
Robert Frazier
Dark Regions Press
ISBN: 978-1-937128-25-8

Reviewer: Karen L. Newman


          Robert Frazier’s status as a premier science fiction poet is exemplified in his latest book, Phantom Navigations. He divides the collection into five sections, “Navigations,” “Dark Futures,” “The Personals,” “Frozen Moments,” and “New Dissections.”

          The collection is named after the first poem in the first section, “Navigations.” This poem is dark, foreboding, an apt introduction to a dark collection in which hope glimmers under an opaque surface.

          The other poems in this section read like snippets of stories cut short. The subjects of each poem are involved in a journey, each alone, the destination essentially unimportant, as illustrated in “Piloting Alone Out There.”

there is a time
when you can’t tell where you came from
from where you are going
and you wonder if it is possible
to chart a way back to Earth
by the tiny flashes of physics
that paint these walls about you

and when you enter an unmapped passage
your own propulsion
the way it stretches time
seems to work against you
kicking up dark stellar matter
that confuses your sensors
you begin to doubt yourself
feeling as truly blind as the white shrimp
that scuttles in the lightless regions
of a deep ocean cave.

          Here Frazier not only utilizes the poetic device of consonance to emphasize his words, but he also selects specific words to convey pointed meanings. Whereas many poets would have employed the word “dark” in the penultimate line, Frazier uses “lightless region.” In this case, “region” can refer to outer space as well as the ocean, while “lightless” evokes a void of light, as in the void of a vacuum.

          The second section, “Dark Futures,” showcases humanity’s reaction to possible futures. A parent’s loss of a child, human relationships, and politics are all explored. As in the first section, the poems are dark, but here they are more directly palpable. An example is “These Dark Futures We Now Inhabit.”

Once they put the kid no longer a kid
on an IV needle in the dim little vet hospital,
he slides toward a drowsy oblivion.
He rests knowing that ins and outs
of fluid control his balance, yet
he thinks of voiding spotty samples
for their bottles and test tubes.

          The man’s condition is comparable to that of others the reader might know, even though the poem is set in the future. The other poems in the section are not placed in a similar reality as ours, but the human condition is still central and relevant.

          Love is the theme of the third section, “The Personals.” Science and romance are intertwined in a lover’s embrace in all but “Crash Course in Lemon Physics.” This standout poem delves into the possibilities of an inanimate object, a corollary to the possibilities of love. Frazier uses exceptional imagery.

in the darkness they hold to their richness
like tethered boat lanterns swinging in a blanketing fog
they haunt me larger than life
large as the skins over sports arenas
hanging like starships above me in the night
bleeding weather
and the acrid oils that bead from their pulp

          The reader can see and smell the lemons without the mention of color.

          The fourth section, “Frozen Moments,” is the most scientifically oriented. German organic chemists Friedrich August Kekule and Justus von Liebig are both featured in the poem “Friedrich August Kekule and the Ring,” the ring referring to benzene, now well known to be a carcinogen. Frazier honors Kekule’s conjecture that was much later validated by computers. I believe Frazier is presenting this scientific turn of events as a way to analogize how the imaginative work of science fiction writers often points towards what is later confirmed as actual reality.

          Other scientific professions Frazier mentions include archaeologist, astronomer, physicist, and professor of electrical engineering. Each poem in the section is a miniature history lesson. Frazier even provides notes at the end of the book, giving background information on referenced scientists and on some scientific terms.

          A couple poems in this section actually address scientific principles. “Blood Tests” includes thoughts on a woman emitting a foul odor.

I used to think spontaneous human combustion
was just old-time geek sensationalism
but now this woman on chemotherapy
was handled by a Hazmat team
white crystals of toxin supposedly
suspended in her bloodstream
and that impossibility sets her apart from us

          Notice how Frazier makes the science accessible to the average or lay reader and thus renders the woman in a relatable way. Unfortunately this is not always the case in this collection, the only substantial flaw I encountered.

          The final section, “New Dissections,” contains Frazier’s thoughts on miscellaneous topics. The most interesting of these is “Seeking Out Lobe-Finned Truths.” Frazier’s own beautiful artwork complements the poem to perfection. The grittiness of the art matches that of the possible truth that humanity may not be as closely related to a certain species as once thought (read the poem for further clarification).

          “Four Days in Nagasaki” is a powerful poem, but here the science is implied, not stated, as most readers already associate the city with the atomic bomb. Associations with WWII are also conjured by the use of words such as “the gunmetal of typewriters” and “the sirens blare with useless anger.”

          The other topics addressed in this final section include terraformation, the Big Bang, the Hartley Comet, and cloning.

          Phantom Navigation is another outstanding example of Robert Frazier’s immense talent. The poems are thought-provoking and often academic without being pretentious. This book is a must-buy for any serious fan of science fiction poetry; Frazier's work, however, transcends genre and will be enjoyed by any reader with an interest in and respect for compelling literature.